The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Wow... looking at some Monomorium minimum that live in my mum's cow poop (woke up finally) and saw a big ant, was gonna catch it but once i got my box of ant catching it was no longer in sight but i found a winged ant queen (it a queen because big gasterd and wing area). I will post some pics soon ...

When I look at those photos, I think Harvester ant. I don't know the scientific name, though.

I found a semi-cholesterol queen walking around, not sure of the species,though. I don't think that there was a nuptial flight in Ontario, Canada, because she was likely foraging for food after winter.

antnest8 wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 30, 2018 4:59 pm

my condolences. That is the pupae of a parasitic fly. Your queen has a HUGE chance of dying. this is common for lasius
for more info watch this video from antscanda

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLpz-B9T4F8

Oh, do you have any suggestions for what to do with the fly?

antnest8 wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 30, 2018 4:52 pm

looks like camponotus or formica

They're definitely not camponotus, as I have some of them. I think that are Fusca, though. Thanks!

Did you catch any workers for her? If not, you should try to get some from her colony. No, unfortunately, by the time I had gotten her into the test tube, the rest of the workers where gone. I almost got a few but my dog wanted to know what I was doing and... yeah it didn't end too well. There wher...

Update? On March 26 I had checked on this colony to find that one queen had died and the cotton was very moldy. I had to move the queen that was alive into a new tube and I put her in a wine cooler set to 60F. The cold temperature triggered her to break off her wings. As of now I don't know if she ...

Did you catch any workers for her? If not, you should try to get some from her colony.

Depending on how you use the containers, they should work. I currently have a Camponotus colony in a "Tubs and Tubes" setup. If you don't know what it is, it's basically a tub outworld with test tubes lined up in a row. don't give tem too many test tubes, though, as they might start molding. I got t...

currently, I have a Mealworm farm for my ants, but I used to just go into my garden and catch bettles. Make sure you kill any fresh insects/protein quickly, as it's the most humane thing to do.